The Ballerina and the Gentleman: Meetings
He only steps inside when she has finally changed to her everyday clothes, and is about to go back home, where Henry is already, preparing whatever they may have for dinner.
But he is there, her prince. He is by the door waiting for her with a single white rose, admiring her in silence as if she were some sort of divine being. His eyes, his dark eyes fixed on her.
She smiles because even though even his whole presence seems strangely overwhelming to her, she has been dreaming of this moment since the first white roses appeared in her dressing room.
"Hello" She breaks the silence.
"Hello" His expression softens and he approaches her.
Taking her right hand, he kisses the back of it. The way he never loses eye contact is unnerving. The way he smiles to her once he’s kissed her hand is incredibly charming.
So much she finds herself blushing at him, but doesn’t even notice the warmth in her cheeks until he is so bold to brush his fingers against her right cheek ever so slightly.
"No rose would ever want to compare their colour to the one that graces your cheeks now."
Her reply to that is a small giggle (why, she feels like a little girl in this very moment) and to let him in.
(Even though there is a part of her that wishes she hadn’t done that.)
They talk about everything, the one listening enraptured to the other and sometimes even finishing each other’s sentences.
His family is rich. She doesn’t have one aside from Henry. He has worked in the family’s inversion business since he finished university. She has worked in Henry’s troupe since she married his son, Edward, when she was 17. He wants to make a name for himself out of his family. She is glad with what she has.
But what surprises her is when he gets on his knees and takes her hands.
"I love you, Anne. I have loved you since the very moment I laid eyes on you. The promise of seeing you is what makes me go through these dark days. When I am there, watching you, I forget everything else. For me, there’s only you. There’s only your smile when you look at the audience, and the hope in my own heart that your smile is for me and for me only…"
There’s only them now. His words, his smile, the hope in his eyes, the way he holds her hands… Her heartbeat, her silence, her whole body shivering with anticipation, but also a bit terrified at what may come next…
Because whatever he says, she’ll have to say no. Because it would imply leaving Henry. The man who loved her as a daughter even though no blood bond united them. The man who had lost so much, including his sanity, during this past years. The man who had gave her a job, a life, and a family.
She couldn’t repay him like this. She couldn’t leave him for her prince. A stranger that overwhelmed her senses and her heart with his presence and protestations of love, but a stranger nonetheless.
"…So that is why I am here, Anne. To see you everyday beyond the stage. To wake up with you every morning and go to bed with you every night. So you can understand that I am yours, body and soul, and I do hope that, someday, you can be as mine as I am yours…"
She does not want to continue listening. She does not want to break his heart. That heart full of hope and love that he is baring to her in this very moment. It would be like stabbing him with a dagger.
He doesn’t say anything else. He simply kisses her fingertips with adoring reverence and looks up at her with hope.
"It… It cannot be." she says, and though his expression simply turns blank, she can see the heartbreak in his eyes. "I cannot leave Henry. He needs me. He’s like a father to me. I cannot leave him. Not now."
Her own heart breaks to pieces when he stands up, freeing her hands, and doesn’t say a thing until he reaches the door, even when she stands up and tries to follow him.
"Still… I shall life in hope."
His words, and the door closing behind him, send a chill down her spine, and she sits down, trying to calm her beating heart, and to drown the feeling that something is wrong.
"What have you done, Anne?" she asks herself. "What have you done?"
